ART DUBAI 2018

Taking Jan Verwoert's essay Why are conceptual artists painting again? Because they think it's a good idea (2005) as a theme for reflection, the booth presents paintings, or better yet, celebrates 'painting'. The essay discusses the current status of painting: does it qualify as 'contemporary art' or should it be rejected as 'irrelevant'? Painting was pronounced a 'royal road' of artistic practice in High Modernism theory. This doctrine was later refuted by conceptual art at the end of the 1960s when every medium represented only one possibility among many, and the only thing that eventually mattered was the idea.

Verwoert asks how painting, understood in terms of immanent conceptual practice, refers to the market and art institutions. He proposes a cynical position: 'as long as there are enough canvasses to sell, and as long as the buyer perceives the conceptualisation of a painting as just another refinement added to the commodity (one that does not trouble their bucolic conception of art), the market cares not a bit about the way painting has been subtly complicated by way of conceptual self-criticism.' On the other hand, the author argues that conceptual and ephemeral forms of practice, where interdisciplinary and project-based approaches boom at international biennales (and in the absence of material resistance) become trapped in institutional dependency.

In this context, we are pleased to present works - predominantly or assimilated within the practice of painting, since acrylic or oil is used or imitated - by Abdelkader Benchamma, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, Nargess Hashemi, Mohammed Kazem, Hesam Rahmanian, Haleh Redjaian and Hassan Sharif, who investigate the significance of 'painting' and adopt a multitude of positions by engaging with a practice specific to that medium, and/or to be understood with reference to the conceptual themes it proposes.

'It is not enough, in order for there to be painting, that the painter take up his brushes again' Damish tells us: it is still necessary that it be worth the effort, 'it is still necessary that [the painter] succeed in demonstrating to us that painting is something that we positively cannot do without, that is it indispensable to us, and that it would be madness - worse still, a historical error - to let it lie fallow today.'

ART GENÉVE 2018

Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde is pleased to participate in Art Genéve 2018 with works by late Emirati artist Hassan Sharif (1951-2016) and German-Iranian artist Haleh Redjaian (born 1971, Frankfurt).The booth will highlight their critical approach of using the grid as a measurement tool and foundation for their compositions, allowing for chance and repetition.

Redjaian's drawings on ready-made or hand-drawn grids as well as her spatial installations that require pulling threads across the surface of the wall sprouts a practice of attentive yet intuitive geometric elaborations. The artist allows irregularities and deviations within order. In doing so, she acknowledges the ever-present and unforeseen surprises that make up our incomprehensible lives, where the grid serves as a metaphor for a transitional life that has irregular narratives and makes you understand this asymmetrical logic. Redjaian's minimal but playful use of pen, ink, gold leaf and thread can take the shape of lithographs, carpets, works on paper, murals and three-dimensional installations.

On the other hand, Sharif's Semi-Systems are determined by numerical equations whose outcomes are not predetermined. Conceived with arbitrary self-imposed mathematical rules or instructions that are often outlined in accompanying draft papers, the artist embraces rebellions within these frameworks, breaking rules and inverting formulas. "Art is not made to be understood; it is not a train that carries you to a specific destination. We, the audience, have to get out and walk into new spaces," the artist said.

Having studied art in London in the early 1980s, Sharif was particularly drawn to British Constructivism, and theorist Kenneth Martin's analysis of the movement's 'systemised constructive process governed by chance and order' served more as a catalyst than a path. These ideas have accompanied him throughout his extensive career including the Semi-Systems and also towards the creation of his Objects, Performances and Experiments. Art historian Paulina Kolczynska writes, Sharif "wanted to remain at the fringes of the system in order to retain space for the creation of his own constructivist process… it was through his coined description of "semi-systems" that he made an important statement, signaling that he was taking some distance from the original systematic agenda."

FRIEZE NEW YORK 2017

We are pleased to return to the sixth edition of Frieze New York with works by Emirati artist Hassan Sharif and Berlin-based Iranian artist Haleh Redjaian. The booth highlights the artists' critical approach of using the grid as a measurement tool and foundation for their composition, allowing for chance and repetition. Both Sharif and Redjaian's works are presented within a more formally and visually similar framework to investigate how this philosophy translates into their three-dimensional objects, hand-woven carpets and works on paper.

ART BRUSSELS 2016

The prime booth will feature works by Emirati artist Hassan Sharif and German-Iranian artist Haleh Redjaian, where a formal comparison will be drawn between the 3D weaving techniques and works on paper by both artists. It will be an investigation of Sharif and Redjaian's critical approach of using the grid as a measurement tool and foundation for their composition, allowing for chance and repetition.

For the solo booth, Iranian artist Rokni Haerizadeh presents a video animation Letter! (2014), which uses footage from the Femen protest and shows how the protest is turned into its own hysterical, violent and performative spectacle once the gaze of the media is present. Haerizadeh refers to his videos as 'moving paintings' to emphasise the pulse of the video. He purposely doesn't refer to them as animations as he's not tracing a movement between frames, instead, each movement is enacted in these individual hand-painted frames to create an erratic pulse, and also merges thousand of individual paintings into one durational piece.

ART DUBAI 2016

16 - 19 Mar 2016Madinat JumeirahBooth E8

We are pleased to participate in the 10th edition of Art Dubai with works by Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, Hesam Rahmanian, Hassan Sharif, Haleh Redjaian, Mohammed Kazem and Xu Qu.

Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian's Her Majesty? is a limited edition facsimile where the trio have completely overhauled the XL coffee table publication, which was published by Taschen Verlag in 2012 about the life of Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty? is now available at the gallery and each book comes with a unique, handmade cover of only 600 copies.

Published by Edition Patrick Frey

ABU DHABI ART 2015

18 - 21 Nov 2015Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu DhabiBooth A16

We are pleased to parcitipate in Abu Dhabi Art with works by Mohammed Kazen, Hassan Sharif, Rokni Hearizadeh, Hesam Rahmanian and Haleh Redjaian.